1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to moving body cameras for taking photographs of objects and information characters which moving with high-speed, and more particularly, to those which are utilized for judging the arrival order in horse races, bicycle races, boat races, automobile races, and the like.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, there is known a moving body camera as shown in FIG. 6. FIG. 6 shows the schematic composition of a moving body camera and an application example of the camera utilized for judging the arrival order of horse races. In FIG. 6, the numeral 1 designates a moving body camera (hereafter, abbreviated as "camera"). The camera 1 principally contains a photographing mechanism 5 which takes photograph of an image 3 relating to an object 2 moving at high speed (i.e., race horses in FIG. 6, hereafter called "moving body") on a film 4 (i.e., silver film); a data recorder 7 which records related character data on the film 4 along with the image 3 located on the film; and a recording controller 8 which controls the data recorder 7.
The photographing mechanism 5, located on a perspective line M in parallel with a goal line 15, principally contains an object glass 9, a slit board 10 which has a slit 10a in front of film 4, a film supplier 11, and a chassis 12 which accommodates these components therein.
Furthermore, the data recorder 7 principally contains a rotating drum 13, a plurality of character indication boards 14, . . . ,14 which are fitted on the surface of rotating drum 13, and a driving motor (not shown) which rotates the rotating drum 13. The rotating drum 13 can be fitted with the plurality (for example, five) of character indication boards 14, . . . ,14 on its outer curved surface.
One character indication board 14 can indicate one chinese character or indicate two symbols (i.e., Japanese syllabary symbols), numerals or alphabetic characters. When required character indication boards 14, . . . ,14 are fitted on the outer curved surface of rotating drum 13, the character data (i.e., message), consisting of 5 characters for example, can be indicated. Further, the recording controller 8 is provided for controlling the driving motor in order to relate the rotation speed of rotating drum 13 with the feeding speed of film 4. The recording controller 8 and the data recorder 7 are connected together by cables.
In the camera 1, composed as described above, the photographing mechanism 5 is placed such that the image 3 relating to the moving body on the goal line 15 can be formed on the film 4 via the object glass 9 and the slit 10a. The film 4 is rewound in the opposite direction of that of the moving body 2 with a speed corresponding to that of the body 2. As a result, image of the moving body which passes through the goal line 15 is consecutively taken by the film 4.
In this case, the image of stationary objects (e.g. background) is always projected on the film 4 via the slit 10a, so that the image is taken by the film 4 as parallel straight lines, not as the actual shape of the objects. Furthermore, the data recorder 7 is located in front of the photographing mechanism 5 via the moving body 2 on the goal line 15, whereby the image of the character indication boards 14, . . . ,14 on the rotating drum 13 is formed on a data recording area 6 on film 4 via the object glass 9 and slit 10a. The recording controller 8 controls the rotation of character indication board 14 corresponding to the running speed of the film 4.
As a result, required character data is recorded in the data recording area 6 on film 4 along with the image 3 of the moving body. As for examples of the required character data, the name of the racecourse, the title of the race, the time of the race, and opening date, etc., may be enumerated. After the race is finished, the film 4 is developed and referees judge the order of arrival by means of visual observation of the developed film which shows the images of moving bodies. In this case, character data which indicates the racecourse, opening date, and time, etc., concerning to the race have been recorded together with the image, so that reliability of the film 4 can be improved. Furthermore, such records of character data are useful for film custody and classification.
However, in order to record the character data, the data recorder 7 in the conventional camera 1 utilizes the rotating drum 13 with character indication boards 14, . . . ,14, the number of which is subject to the circumference of the rotating drum 13, and is limited to a small number (five or so). Hence, if the information value of the message should be increased, abbreviations, ciphers and the like should be adopted for the message. For example, if the information "Tokyo Horse Racecourse, 2nd race; opened on 1987, 8 Dec. started at P.M. 1:00" should be recorded, the message on the five character indication boards 14, . . . ,14 should be abbreviated to "87", "TO", "2", "08", and "12". Therefore, the information indicated by the message is apt to be unclear.
Furthermore, the data recorder 7 which contains the rotating drum 13 and driving motor, etc., must be heavy and of large size. Furthermore, it is very troublesome to set the character indication boards 14, . . . ,14 on the rotating drum 13 and to exchange the boards.
There is known another technique which utilizes a vertical light array in place of the rotating drum 13 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 63-41446). However, the apparatus must be even larger and is expensive.